The Browns have several weeks where they make a nice D/ST of choice. Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images

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When it comes to drafting, most people prefer to pick their defense/special team toward the end of the draft, but every once in awhile people reach in an attempt to get a top tier defense early. The problem with reaching is that there may have been another offensive player that could have been better value than the defense that was taken. For example, if you take the Seahawks defense in the middle of the eighth round, you could miss out on someone like Anquan Boldin, Andre Brown or Vincent Brown. However, there is a less-used strategy of streaming defenses from week to week. This allows the owner the freedom to draft a low-risk offensive player instead of locking up that roster spot with what may be a mediocre defense.

As an example of how the streaming defense / special teams could work, this table shows one possible streaming strategy for the entire season.

The D/ST I chose for the chart are ones that typically aren't getting drafted in 12 team leagues. Not one is a team that I would trust on a weekly basis, but by streaming them, you can see how they would be useful. Some of these matchups may seem to be obvious due to the possible lack of offensive fire power on the opponents side; such as the games against the Oakland Raiders or Jacksonville Jaguars. That is what streaming is really about; trying to find the best team for that particular week, instead of using one team almost exclusively for the entire season.

This may not be the way you like to play the game, but it is another option and does have the potential of yielding championship results. Most traditionalists of fantasy will see this as a weakness to your team, but having the chance to own a guy like Alfred Morris last year in the 13th round instead of selecting the New York Jets defense is worth the risk. There will be people that disagree with this strategy; and there is nothing wrong with that, but for my money this is the way to go. If you disagree, or even if you don’t, let me know what you’re preferred strategy is.